Becoming a "Strange Japanese"
变成“陌生的日本人”

　In 1995, when Paul Rosales took Japanese citizenship and changed his name to Koji Aoki, he underwent a transformation. A hen na gaijin ("strange foreigner") became a hen na nibonjin ("strange Japanese"). Even for as committed an expatriate as Mr.Aoki, who carries his new passport at all times, fitting into Japan is not easy.

* undergo：“经受”、“经历”等意思。Paul Rosales不仅仅是改变了国籍和名字，他本身也经历了一种变化。从一个strange foreigner变成了一个strange Japanese。
* committed：本来是“忠实的”、“有密切关系的”等意思，这里则表示“完完全全的”、“彻底的”的意思。
* expatriate：“移居国外的人”。Mr.Aoki虽然改变了国籍和姓名，但还是个彻底的美国人，因而溶入日本社会还比较困难。

　　Raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Mr. Aoki made his first trip to Japan in 1976 between high school and college. That led to a two-year stint as an English teacher in the suburbs of Tokyo during the early 1980's. "That's when I decided I wanted to live in Japan," he recalls. "The motivating factor was just feeling comfortable here-not having to strive to be the rugged individualist" that life in the US seemed to demand.

* stint：“定量的工作”、“指派的工作”。这里指短期的工作。
* rugged：这里rugged用来形容那些粗壮而刻苦耐劳的人。在美国竞争比较激烈，人们生活相当独立，因而比较辛苦。Rugged individualist包含了此义。 　　

　　Aoki returned to Japan in 1986 and has been here ever since. He lives in a Tokyo bedroom community called Higashi Matsuyama, where he teaches English at a private school. Having taken Japanese citizenship, Aoki plans to take a job in the public school system next year. Then he will enjoy the job security afforded many workers in this country, a status he never quite achieved in the private school. " In some ways, my career is only beginning," he says.

* status：“身份”、“地位”的意思。

　　In other ways, too, Aoki remains on the cusp of Japaneseness. His spoken Japanese is fluent, but Aoki says he still has to get ready to read a newspaper by lining up dictionaries.
* cusp：“尖角”的意思。Japaneseness是指“日本人的传统”、“日本人的特色”等。on the cusp of Japaneseness就是指与一个日本人还相去甚远。
* line up：“排队”的意思。这里指查阅各种字典。连看报纸都要借助于大摞的字典，可见变成一个外国人多难啊！为什么要变呢？ 　　

　　He isn't inclined to join in the three activities that facilitate socializing here: drinking, smoking, and singing karaoke. " If I had one of those three vices, although I'm not sure if karaoke is a vice, it would be a lot easier to meet people," he says.

* vice：“罪恶”、“堕落”、“恶癖”等意思。不仅日本，许多国家都把喝酒和吸烟视为恶习。至于karaoke（卡拉ＯＫ）是否属于恶习，不同国家有不同的看法。

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